Do Balance Discs and Peanuts Really Work? New Research Says Yes

If you’ve ever visited a canine rehabilitation clinic, you’ve probably seen dogs standing on balance equipment like K9FITbones, balance discs, or peanut-shaped inflatable platforms.

These exercises are often called “core exercises” or “balance training,” but until now we have had very little scientific evidence showing exactly what they do inside the dog’s body.

A new study by Ramos et al. helps answer that question.

What did the researchers study?

Ramos et al. looked at nine healthy Labrador Retrievers that were already familiar with rehabilitation exercises.

The dogs performed three standing exercises:

1. Standing on stable platforms
2. Standing on K9FITbones (moderately unstable)
3. Standing on a FitPaws TRAX Peanut (more unstable)

The researchers used special sensors to measure:

• Movement of the spine
• Muscle activity
• Balance and postural control

This allowed them to objectively measure how hard the dogs’ bodies were working during each exercise.

What did they find?

The biggest finding was simple:

The more unstable the surface became, the harder the dogs had to work to stay balanced.

As the exercises became more challenging, movement in both the thoracolumbar region (middle back) and lumbosacral region (lower back) increased significantly.

In other words, the dogs’ bodies had to make more adjustments to stay upright and balanced.

This tells us that unstable equipment really does create a greater postural control challenge.

The Peanut was the most challenging

Compared with standing on a stable platform, the Peanut produced the greatest increase in spinal movement and balance demands, creating much larger challenges for both the middle and lower back.

This supports what many rehabilitation professionals already suspected: not all balance equipment is equal.

The Peanut appears to be one of the more advanced standing exercises for healthy dogs.

What about the muscles?

One of the most interesting findings involved the abdominal muscles.

The rectus abdominis, one of the major abdominal muscles, showed significantly greater activity when dogs stood on the Peanut.

This suggests that more challenging balance exercises may increase recruitment of the abdominal muscles that help support and stabilize the spine.

That is important because strong abdominal muscles play a major role in:

• Core strength
• Spinal stability
• Athletic performance
• Injury prevention
• Rehabilitation after injury

Not every muscle worked harder

Interestingly, some muscles did not increase their activity as the surfaces became more unstable.

The researchers found that the triceps showed little change between exercises.

The biceps femoris and medial gluteal muscles also behaved differently than expected.

This reminds us that balance training is not simply about “making every muscle work harder.” Instead, the body changes how different muscles work together to maintain stability.

Why this matters

For years, rehabilitation professionals have used unstable surfaces because they appeared to improve balance, coordination, and core strength.

This study gives us objective evidence supporting those observations.

The findings show that progressively unstable equipment creates progressively greater challenges to balance and postural control.

That means we can use equipment strategically:

• Stable platforms for beginners
• K9FITbones for moderate challenges
• Peanuts for more advanced balance and core training

My take

I think this is one of the most clinically useful rehabilitation studies published recently.

One of the most important messages is that balance equipment should be viewed as a progression. More unstable is not always better.

A dog recovering from injury may start on stable surfaces and gradually progress to K9FITbones and eventually a Peanut as strength, coordination, and confidence improve.

The study also reinforces something we emphasize frequently in rehabilitation: proper posture matters. The dogs in this study were carefully positioned in a balanced “stacked stance” while performing these exercises.

Simply putting a dog on unstable equipment is not enough. Good positioning, controlled movement, and positive reinforcement are what make these exercises effective.

Most importantly, this study confirms that these exercises are doing more than we think. They create measurable changes in postural control and abdominal muscle activation that can help support rehabilitation, fitness, and athletic performance.

Reference

Ramos et al. The Effect of Progressively Unstable Equipment Used in Canine Fitness and Rehabilitation on Standing Postural Control and Muscle Activity. Veterinary and Comparative Orthopaedics and Traumatology. 2025.